NELUMBIUM 
N. luteum (yellow), our common native species, may be taken as 
the type; and for cultivation they may be treated in the way prescribed 
for the hardy species of Nymphcea. The other species are N. advena, 
from North America, with red anthers; A", pumilum, similar to lutevm 
but smaller, with more rounded petals; native of Europe, and occurring 
in Scotland and Shropshire. 
The Order Nympileace® also includes the genera Euryale and 
Victoria , the noblest aquatic plants known. Euryale ferox, a native of 
India, has floating leaves as much as 4 feet in diameter, and purple 
flowers; the calyx and stalk covered with sharp spines. Victoria regia 
has leaves from 6 to 8 feet across, with turned-up edges, and of great 
buoyancy; the flowers more than a foot across, with red sepals and 
white petals, the inner series rosy. Native of tropical America. Both 
these species are stove plants. 
Description of Nymphcea lotus, var. rubra, is here shown about one 
Plate 16. h a if 0 f the natural size; with upper and under surfaces of 
the leaf. Fig. 1 is a section through the flower deprived of sepals and 
petals, showing how the carpels are sunk in the receptacle. Fig. 2 
represents two stamens, to show the petal-like character of the outer 
series, and how the filaments are narrower as they are placed nearer to 
the carpels. 
NELUMBIUM 
Natural Order Nelumbiace®. Genus Nelumbium 
Nelumbium (Nelumbo, the Cingalese name). A genus of two species 
of aquatics, one a native of the southern parts of North America, the 
other distributed throughout Asia and found in Australia. They have a 
horizontal rootstock from which spring the large peltate leaves, at first 
floating but afterwards borne clear above the surface by the lengthening 
of the long cylindrical leaf-stalks. The flowers are also large and 
raised on long stalks; the petals in several series, the stamens very 
numerous in several series. The receptacle is greatly extended and 
expands into a top-shape with hollow summit in which the carpels are 
embedded, and to whose base the petals and stamens are attached. 
History Few plants have so interesting or ancient a history as 
Nelumbium speciosum, the Asiatic species. It was the 
Sacred Bean of the early Egyptians, and is believed to have been intro¬ 
duced to Egypt at a very early date. Four thousand years ago it was 
the emblem of sanctity among the priests of Isis; and it is described by 
